Block, the company behind Square, Cash App and other services, announced a new program today allowing merchants using Square’s solutions to convert a percentage of their daily sales to bitcoin.
The feature, rolling out in the U.S. starting today, will transfer 1-10% of Square sellers’ daily sales to their personal Cash App account. This amount will convert into bitcoin at the end of the day. Merchants will receive a confirmation of the conversion when the transaction is complete.
Block said that the bitcoin conversion feature will be available to all sole proprietors or single-member LLCs in the coming months. The company takes a 1% cut from every conversion made by the seller. Merchants can send bitcoin to other wallets or sell them at any time from their Cash App account.
“Block believes that bitcoin is an instrument of economic empowerment and provides a way for people around the world, including business owners, to participate in a global monetary system,” the company said in a statement.
“According to direct feedback from Square sellers, many are interested in bitcoin and believe it presents a wide range of use cases, such as long-term savings and diversifying their businesses’ holdings.”
When we asked Block about sellers’ conversion patterns and average returns, the company said it had just tested the bitcoin conversion feature with a small set of merchants and had no definitive data.
Block has tried to make it easy for users to buy bitcoin across its platforms. For instance, the company integrated its self-custodial wallet Bitkey with Cash App and Coinbase to allow holders to trade bitcoin easily.